Evil of the empire
by Hamfast Gamgee
Summary: Well, this is a tale when the Gungans finally get it. This one is for all of us who have found Jarjar and the Gungans slightly, well, annoying. Though they probably don't deserve what I am about to do to them......
1. The beginning

Well, this is my tale about the Gungans. I think some are reading this! Some reviews would be nice. I'm sure I'm not the only one who desire the Gungans to have a thoroughly bad time!

Evil of the Empire

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away, a great tragedy took place...

Party time! It was Issac's birthday! His fiftieth actually and well he did look on it. Issac was a Gungan on the planet Naboo in the town of Oxhey outside the city, Londres. Issac Barliman was popular in the town, and over a hundred of the Gungans, also the other main inhabitants of Naboo, humans and a few special guests were partying the evening away. Well, actually, they had been partying the entire day away and where now well into the evening. Gungans where tall, mostly black-skinned, with big ears, features, long mouths and very long, flexible and sensitive tongues.

'Fortunate that we are all off tomorrow been a Sunday,' said Issac after a burp. One of his friends gave a little gulp. 'We are all of tomorrow, aren't we?' he laughed,

'Afraid not,' said his companion, called Trexuvaious, 'I've just remembered, I have a meeting with Senator Binks tomorrow, very important all about Galactic affairs. Too late to sober up now! I might be a bit drunk!',

'Sounds like the best way to meet him!' laughed a female Gungan, Stuxuwo. She did have a little point. Jarjar Binks was a honest Gungan, but he did have his little odd ways. Some of his fellows just found them plain irritating. So having a few Beers before meeting him was sometimes a good idea.

'I'm not so sure that I agree with that,' said another Gungan woman, Trex's wife in fact.

'Oh, helps, the missus,' Trex groaned.

'Yes, lets keep you away from any more beer, we don't want you forgetting some of those important issues we want discussed,'

'Yes, dear,' said Trex looking forlornly at his nearly-empty glass. He was saved by Stuxuwo.

'Oh, look over that it's that nice Gram Only,' she declared pointing out a rugged, but very handsome looking and dark young man was sitting on the grass nearby eating nerf-steak. Trex's wife had a little crush on that man and before long had apprehended him. 'Now's your chance,' she whispered to Trex, who thanked her and subtly moved over to the bar. In the meantime the night sky exploded in fireworks created by Mugwort, a illusionary expert and friend of the Gungans. Mugwort was a very mysterious figure but his real work was known to few of the Gungans. Many cheered, whooped and applauded as the fireworks lit up the Naboo night sky.

'De big bangers in the sky, Der, keep de peps looking up, das,' said a voice behind Trex.

'Hello, Jar,' said Trex without even bothering to look around. The speaker was obviously Jarjar Binks, there was no-one else that Trex knew with such an, er, unique way of speaking. Trex offered some advice to the Senator, 'By the way, instead of speaking in that quite ridiculous southern manner, mixed in with space knows what, how about speaking in the classic common accent you have been taught as a Senator to make you more, um, presentable,'

'Well, if you think people will like it?' everyone nodded towards Jarjar, 'Oh, very well then!' There was a hush of sorts as Jarjar proceeded to the stage, ducking under the 'Happy 50th birthday Issac!' banner to make a speech. 'As your representing Senator, I would just like to say "happy birthday," to Silvano and happy returns,' this only served to produce more hilarity.

'It's Issac, you burke!' everyone shouted,

'Oh, sorry Issac, Silvano is next week!' replied Jarjar in embarrassment.

'All you had to do was look at the banner,' laughed Stuxuwo'

'Ah, well,' continued Jarjar, 'Happy birthday, Issac, I hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am, and um, party away!' There was much applause and cheers at this. Just how the Gungans like their speeches, short! It was an easy mistake for Jarjar to make. He did have to go to lots of functions as a Senator and it was actually quite easy to sometimes mix up the names. But the Gungans appeared quite happy to take his advice at the least. A group of young Gungans formed a circle and danced a very vigorous version of the Springle-ring.

Nearby Gram had managed to dodge the attentions of Trex's wife and was chatting to his companion a blonde young man called Matthew or Matt. 'Oh, dear, your not going to get drunk drinking that stuff!' said he pointing out Matt's very sweet and sugary fruit based drink.

'Or taste anything at all,' added Mugwort his black face engulfed in a smile. He too enjoyed strong alcohol in moderation.

Matt muttered, 'Well, actually getting drunk is not my intention tonight,'

'fine, suit yourself,' declared Gram then wondered of his arm around his current girlfriend a shortish, dark-haired young woman.

'Wonder where he's going?' asked Matt,

'come on, don't be so naïve, at least the music should be loud enough to drown them out,' laughed Mugwort.

But there was one man who seemed less than happy with all these frivolities. He was a man in the uniform of an Imperial Officer, rather thin and weady with an odd-looking face, but possibly a little handsome. He was here on business rather than pleasure. In the morning, he needed to have a word with Jarjar. But some young Gungan shouted at him, 'enjoying the party, officer?' this rather innocent statement was enough for him. The man, whose name was Whitesnake, could bear it no longer and had to reply,

'No I am not. And I'm not so sure you should be to. There is a serious Galaxy out there. The dawn of the new order and the direction it should go. Tomorrow it is perfectly possible I might have to decide which people to kill. So I might thank you to take things a little more seriously and not quite lark around so much in these dangerous times. In fact……'

His speech was cut of a little by two young Gungans blowing their tongues in his face and spitting over his tunic. Everyone laughed more. Whitesnake sighed, and pretending to take this in good faith moved away. Inwardly actually he was seething. 'What a people.' he was thinking. 'how I would like a chance to teach some of them what the Galaxy is really like!'

Whitesnake would soon get his chance. The next morning, early he was to lead a raid onto Jarjar's local offices. He was reliably informed that a package that his commanding officer, Moff Tarkin was very keen on acquiring. He lead a group of soldiers, or stormtroopers into the office. In order to keep a little legitimacy, he was actually quite polite and called for Jarjar by name. He was met by a rather groggy, looking Trex. That was when politeness ended. 'Search warrant, we have reason to believe you are holding illegal information from us,' he said bluntly. Pushing aside the surprised looking Trex who straightened his brown trousers and buttoned his green tunic. Jarjar tried to stop Whitesnake wearing orange and green as a cross between casual Senate dress and traditional Gungan fashion.

'I am not aware of any such thing,' he blustered,

'I'll be the judge of that,' countered Whitesnake. 'Baldrick, run through a check for any electronic documents in this office,' he commanded his subordinate, Baldrick.

Whitesnake was also met by Jarjar's serving Droid.

'Ah, my good sir, do you require refreshments?' the tall, golden droid asked. Now if there was one thing which also annoyed Whitesnake almost as much as Gungans it was those prissy protocol droids. Even if he admitted they had their uses, he wasn't sure if it was worth it to cope with their annoying habits.

'Shove it,' he replied with no attempt at niceness.

'Sorry, sir, can't find anything sir,' Baldrick said after a thorough search.

Whitesnake sighed, 'Did you check the droid?' asked he,

'Yes, sir, didn't see anything on him,'

'that is because, you utter nincompoop, the electronic insignia of the droid itself will hide any foreign material. You are supposed to check it manually. Honestly.' Whitesnake did so himself. As he prodded the droid with a small, sonic rod, a small disc fell out. Whitesnake recognized it instantly. 'Ah, what's this?' he asked ironically. 'Well, would you believe it seems to be the Saskin report, issued only for those in the Imperial court. Top secret. Curious how you seemed to acquire it and very keen to keep me from finding it as well.' He looked at Jarjar and Trex who had been joined by Mugwort. All three looked like embarrassed guilty schoolboys. Whitesnake continued. 'Well, this has to be returned to the Emperor. And I imagine he will be most displeased when he discovers that you stole it. You can forget about any small political influence you have for the time been. You'll be sacked from any Senate committee's you happen to be on, possibly even suspended from the Senate itself. Good day,' Whitesnake and his stormtroopers left the building.

The three looked at each other ashen faced. 'This could be bad news for us,'

Suggested Trex.

'But Whitesnake does have one point,' said Mugwort, 'there are serious issues out there in the Galaxy. The New Order strikes me as, well, suspicious. You Gungans shouldn't be mucking about quite so much. People are dying out there,'

'Yes we know. But we have to party occasionally. Whatever the situation is,' Jarjar replied to him.

Light-years away, Whitesnake was attending a conference. He had given the Disc to Tarkin, who had congratulated him. Whitesnake was impressed. 'Thank you Whitesnake that will be all for now,' Tarkin had dismissed him abruptly but politely. The remainder of the conference was attended by three. Moff Tarkin, one of the rising stars in the new order of the Galaxy. The Emperor of the Galaxy himself, Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice the fearsome Darth Vader. Palpatine, who it appeared had taken stock of the situation quickly, started, 'Well, well, well, it would appear that the Gungans have betrayed me. They have stolen a disc full of details of our weaponry capabilities very useful to those who still violently oppose us and it appears have send information to them. I would say that was treason. What course of action should we take to them? Well, they must be punished. Let us make Naboo a prison planet. Enslave the Gungan. Punish the Senator Jarjar, obviously, possibly even execution, but I will consider that later,' The Emperor was a small figure, hideously disfigured clad in a black robe, almost oozing authority.

Tarkin replied, 'The Gungans again. They have vexed you before!'

'Yes that is true. A number of times. If they think I have forgiven them for the time they stopped my plans all those years ago they are wrong. I don't forgive and I have a long memory.'

Then Vader stepped up all dressed, even his face, in black armour, 'But didn't Jarjar do you a favour once many years ago. He was the one who persuaded the Senate to legitimise your rule.'

'Possibly. But that was in the past. And I manipulated him into it. No I have had my suspicions upon Jarjar and Naboo for a while now. This simply confirms them. Yes, lets make an example of them.'

'Excuse me sire,' interrupted Tarkin. It said a lot about Tarkin, that he was one of the few people in the Galaxy who had the nerve to interrupt the Emperor. Tarkin was in fact one of the cleverest and most dangerous of Palatine's henchmen and Palpatine knew it. 'I think we should make a big example of them. Our rule is fairly new. The entire Galaxy is watching us, wondering what way we will turn. We should make a statement. The Gungans could do it for us. Now it doesn't really matter if they are right or wrong, all we need to do is to have an excuse. Genocide.' Tarkin said bluntly. 'We should make a real example of them. We should exterminate them totally. To the last one. That would certainly impress the rest of the Galaxy. They would not think that we have, forgive me sire for such a word, the balls frankly, to do it.' There was a long pause as Palpatine thought.

'Well, they are certainly annoying. And I have never really got my revenge for the last occasion. Ha, ha, yes it would certainly be an exercise of power, which for it's own sake is worth doing. Yes, I think I give you the authority to do that.'


	2. The tragedy unfolds

'How long should this operation take?'

'Days, weeks, I doubt months. We do have the ability to do it. I've done some research and it seems that the vast majority of the Gungans do live on Naboo. A few live elsewhere in the system and the remainder dwell in the Naboo sector on Coruscant. It's just a question of nerves.'

'What of Naboo generally, what about the humans their?' asked Vader.

'Ah, good point, Vader,' replied the Emperor. 'Well, everyone makes mistakes, I suppose. Those that oppose us, or look like opposing us will be crushed. But some we might make a choice to accept our rule and we might not be too harsh on them. They are human after all.' This was typical of the Emperor. He had recently began to discriminate badly against most non-human species and personally held the belief, which had only recently began to be obvious although subtly it had been shown in the past in the superiority of humans. He was always, always, always biased in their favour.

'As you wish,' answered Vader,

'Oh, and Vader, I don't believe we will need you much on this one, there is a little difficulty over on Bothan I believe you can assist with. I will send you there. Tarkin, I don't suppose you need me either, this operation is in your hands.'

With a bow Vader left the chamber. With a curt nod and sharp salute Tarkin also did so. He never out rightly said it, but Tarkin was always very flattered by the special favour and trust which the Emperor often put into him. He set out to make plans.

A few days later Jarjar was in his office. He was reading a report which had bad news. It seemed that Imperial warships had landed in the Naboo system. Many Stormtroopers had landed in Naboo, without notifying Jarjar who as the local Senator, they should have done, and indeed their behaviour was worrying.

Many roadblocks had been set up throughout Naboo, many Gungans had been simply scooped up and taken away without explanation, plus there where accounts of random violence, shootings and blatant vandalism. Senator Jarjar was going to demand an explanation of Tarkin the nearest Imperial representative of influence.

The door beeped and Trex entered in a hurry. 'Sir, we have news, there has been a system-wide blockade imposed by the local Imperial Navy. No person or goods or information are allowed in or out. No explanation has been given.'

'What? They can't do that. Do they know how much damage even a short one will cause? Never mind the unfairness. That's it. I am going to travel to the nearest Imperial ship and demand them to withdraw.'

'Why can't you send a message?'

'I prefer to do this in person. Besides, any messages I try to get out are jammed. Come on, the sooner we do this the better. But better take an escort. These Imperials can get ugly sometimes. Is Gram and Matt around?'

'Yes, I did have notification they were nearby, free as well,'

'Good, we can employ them as part of the escort, Matt is keen to see some action I'm told and is a sprightly kid, Gram, well he'll do it if he's paid well. See to it please.'

Therefore, later that day, Jarjar, Trex, Stuo and the three humans with many Gungans where in orbit, approaching an Imperial StarDestroyer, early version. On the bridge Trex asked Jarjar, 'Still no reply,'

'Nothing, we just get static, they must be aware of us we can virtually make out details on the bridge.' Trex looked at the deadly Ship opposite. He knew that the Imperials could be uncompromising and violent at times. Viciously so. What if they had been severely annoyed by their actions earlier. He suddenly felt very uncomfortable, even frightened. Jarjar seemed to sense this. 'Look, I've an alternative idea. You get out of here. Take Stuo with you. Try to get in contact with Mugwort. If I send no message back to the planet, you may assume I'm in trouble. So might you be. You might well have to organise what resistance you can to these Imperials. Try to give them a bloody nose.'

Trex didn't necessarily want to leave Jarjar. But he could see Jarjar's point. Reluctantly he decided to take Stuo and to leave. Too late. As he tried to reach an escape pod there was a great metal clamp. 'Attention, the ship is under a tractor beam, curtly announced a voice. And before long, Stormtroopers invaded the ship.

Any hopes Jarjar might have had of violence been averted was quickly dashed. Tarkin had given orders to capture Jarjar and several others, but said nothing about many of the ordinary crew. It didn't take much excuse for White-armoured Imperial Stormtroopers to engage in violence, and some started shooting dead random Gungans. Some nearly caught up with Trex and Stuo. But they where met first by Gram, Matt and Trixie. 'Watch out, Trex,' called Gram as a Stormtrooper blaster ray fired above his head. 'Ok, kid, turn around, only one way to stop this!' and both human men, crouched down, fired and hit several Stormtroopers. 'Fine, Trex, you have a few moments,' everyone dived in the small escape pod. 'Override,' cried Gram and fiddled with a few switches, and the pod hummed into power.

'Oh, my Silvia-ridden tongue,' cried Stuo as the pod dived towards Naboo under fire from the Imperial ship. Well, as it happened Gram was a good pilot and he managed to dodge the Imperial fire.

In the meantime, Stormtroopers had entered the bridge opposite Jarjar, followed by Tarkin and Whitesnake. The white-armoured soldiers surrounded Jarjar and the Gungans, pointing their rifles at them. The Gungan Senator turned on Tarkin. He said angrily, 'just what do you people think you're doing? I am the Imperial Senator here, and I have the authority. I demand you withdraw from our system and release our prisoners. Also, we will discuss compensation for your troops vandalism.' Brave words. But even Jarjar as he spoke them realized he was a little out of political reality.

Tarkin looked at him slowly. He gave a gesture and a stormtrooper hit Jarjar hard on the forehead with a blaster butt causing blood to run and Jarjar to fall down. He pointed at Jarjar. 'I am the authority around here. You people have vexed us too often. You are about to find out what happens to those who continue to flout the power of his Imperial majesty. I would just shoot you now, but I think you should be taken to see what is going to happen to your people. And remember that your actions are primarily responsible for this! Take him away!' the Soldiers dragged Jarjar off. This wasn't actually completely accurate from Tarkin, but he liked playing the psychological games with his enemies.

Meantime, Gram and the others where hurtling towards Naboo's surface. It wasn't an easy journey. Not only had they do dodge the rays from the Imperial ship but others where about. 'Get the impression were not too popular with our overlords,' muttered Gram as he tried to work out various trajectories. It was some hours before they made it to Naboo's atmosphere.

But as they descended, they passed a spaceship on fire which looked local.

'They're in trouble,' pointed out Matt.

'Never mind lets just get to wherever we're going,' countered the pod's pilot.

'Hold on one moment. I think I recognize that ship. I think it belongs to an old friend of mine. Haven't seen for a while, but I would like to think she's still alive. Gram, I think we should intercept it.' That was Stu. Gram wasn't that happy, but Stux sounded insistent. Probably a good thing. The Ship which was seen was in trouble. In fact it was on the verge of exploding. It must have recently seen a lot of fire. But, the escape pod was able to contact it. Thankfully the pod had a little bit of emergency equipment, so the ship, called the Bologne was able to stay up without crashing. And Stux did recognize the pilot. It was an old friend of hers, a Naboo human actually called Mandy. 'So exactly where did you people land into all of this?' Stux asked her human friend.

'Don't ask for now. I will tell you unless you haven't guessed. But I think that for now we should just find a safe place to land. At least for the moment.' Mandy was uncharacterictally scruffy and looked very stressed. Stux did consider what was wrong with her. But for the moment she was just concerned with helping. Once the ship was landed, Mandy seemed only too eager to tell what she had seen. She sat on a pleasant bench, near to some homes, wearing grey trousers and pink shirt with a jumper.

'You would not believe what I have just seen. Well, maybe you would. I've just come from Melchester.' Melchester was Naboo's third city.

'So, what happened?' asked Trex eagerly.

'The Imperials. That's what happened. It started a few hours ago. Without warning an uneasy glow appeared in the lunchtime sky and several large Imperial ships appeared above. Well, that's unusual because normally the planetary security force occupy the atmosphere. People became worried. No mention was made of the Imperials intent. But as you know, there have been scary rumours of what they have been doing in other parts of the Galaxy, especially since Palpatine declared himself Empire, which to be honest has never been too popular around here. There was a very quiet few minutes. Then slowly, the Ships started to fire. Slowly at first. But it became quicker and quicker. Strong fire too. Before long, the entire centre of the city was burning. Explosions and smoke bellowed and casualties began to mount. People screamed in panic and ran for cover. Buildings collapsed in flame spreading rubble. No-one really knew why this was going on, generally we were totally unprepared, it was terrifying. Alarms blared and some of the emergency services made some attempt to quill and help people. In fact, I have heard tales of astonishing bravery which they have achieved. But sadly it was all too little. In fact, many of the fire stations, police stations and hospitals for example had been destroyed first. Now I think that the Imperials targeted those first, deliberately. For a time been there was a pause. But then another, more deadly if that was possible, wave of destruction began. Many small, fighter style ships dived towards the city, firing down at it, targeting buildings, dropping deadly bombs which exploded, sometimes destroying whole sectors of the city by itself. I stress again that we had no real defences. Those which we had generally are above the Planet and besides Melchester is not really a military city, it has always been vulnerable to attack. Chaos reigned in the streets. Well, I say streets, it was difficult to tell as they became so full of rubble from the destroyed buildings, the bodies of the dead and dying, the fires raging unchecked and the people screaming and running around in helpless confusion. Then the final terror occurred. Imperial Stormtroopers. Those of the most vicious variety. Well, they must have landed before the attack started, and now on the ground, the troops made there way through the city streets, killing most of who they came across. I came across a few survivors as I fled. Mostly Human, it has to be admitted. Some people said that a few of the Human population where been spared or even offered to be set free, but no Gungans where. We know the Empire has been harsh recently on a few of the alien races. Perhaps it is now the Gungans turn. I was lucky in a way I suppose. I somehow managed to slip through the Imperials roadblocks amongst the ruins. But before I fled, I did see something horrendous. You remember the old temple of Ghanga in the suburbs? Well, thousands of Gungans had fled to that. A strong symbol of security, maybe they thought it a safe haven. But Imperials trapped them in. I saw the soldiers blast through the old wooden doors, then fire, flames, smoke and the sound of blaster fire. Now I was forced to stay there longer than I wanted to. I saw hundreds of dead bodies of Gungans thrown out of the buildings but no live ones. I have heard that all where massacred. But as I say I managed to slip out with the lucky ones, made it back to my ship where a few of us managed to take off just before the arrival of Stormtroopers.'


	3. The noose tightens

Everyone was silent for a few moments, digesting the full horror of the picture Mandy had painted. Stux suddenly cried, watch out Gram, your close to the planetary Maw, there.' the Maw was a cloud of impassable space clouds above some of Naboo's atmosphere and stretching into the Solar System. In fact a flare from it hit the ship.

'Oops,' said Gram sleeplessly, but it was too late. The ship had already come into some rough treatment and this was the last straw. It lurched out of control and headed towards the planetary surface. Gram, Matt, and annoyingly for Gram, 124, had all landed together.

'Now that hurt,' complained Matt.

'Never mind that, look at those,' advised Gram.

Nearby them, a squad of Stormtroopers where marching towards the two.

'Well, I suppose we could just let them walk by, they could just ignore us,' suggested Matt.

'Doubt it. Besides, I have done one or two dealings they might want to investigate. I haven't had time to switch ID's and besides…….'

Gram was interrupted by a volley of shots from the Stormtroopers. Gram and Matt ducked under some rocks, but 124 was hit square in the chest. It would have destroyed any living organism, but of course 124 was a Droid. Gram whispered to Matt, 'Well, it would appear that they are shooting on sight. Reckon we should take them on? Looks good!' Gram touched his blaster with a smile.

'Lets do it,' cried Matt.

'Afraid,' suggested Gram as the Stormtroopers moved closer.

'No chance,' answered Matt with a heroic, but possibly not very wise grin.

Well, there was about 30 Stormtroopers. But Gram and Matt made short work of them. They shot, dived, jumped, dashed and before long most of the Stormtroopers were dead and those that weren't where betting a hasty retreat. 'Thought it would be easy,' said Matt with a toothy, white-cleaned smile. Matt did think that whatever the dangers of the situation he always had a Galactic teeth-cleaning gum with him. Gram to be fair, was not so fortunate, his teeth did have a slightly beaten up look. In fact, come to think of it, his entire body had a slightly beaten up look. He might have looked vaguely attractive, but anyone getting close to him would have noticed a rather pungent smell! Anyway, Gram replied with a rather stupid little swivel of the hips.

Then cried, 'Oh, look out,' as both turned around. Well, all of their fighting had taken place on a slightly uppish hill near to some mountains. Gram and Matt only now noticed a few stronger-looking Stormtroopers climbing up towards them. Followed by a hovering craft, well-armed, armoured, drifting upwards, pointing it's guns. Matt and Gram might have wondered how it was that between them they managed to defeat so many Stormtroopers, why it was the soldiers where so lightly armed or why none of them thought of throwing a stun-grenade at them, but they obviously didn't.

'Oh, boy,' was Matt's only comment.

Meantime, Gungan Senator Jarjar Binks was worried too. He was standing in chains on the bridge of the Imperial attack-force mother-ship in front of several smartly uniformed officers of the Imperial navy. In fact, if anything, Tarkin's uniform was the one which was slightly more worn than the rest, but as Supreme Commander he was allowed a little leeway in the manner of dress. Whitesnake had been invited along too for some, 'Education,' as Tarkin had put it, but really, Whitesnake just wanted to witness Jarjar at his most vulnerable. He could be quite a vindictive person, could Captain Whitesnake.

Tarkin was spelling out to Jarjar the events of the past few days. 'Well, as you see we have made a landing upon Naboo. We didn't experience much resistance at first. Not sure what we where up to I guess. But look at what we have achieved. We have destroyed your weather satellite systems, poured flaming fire over the Bushy agricultural lands and obliterated your planetary power. And the extermination program is making good progress. A million Gungans dead already,'

Jarjar shuddered at the pain which the Imperial policies were obviously causing. He spoke unclear as he had been beaten up a little and his throat hurt. 'Why? Why do you hurt us so? We mean no harm to anyone. We just want to live as ourselves on Naboo. We are loyal citizens to the Republic…' Jarjar's words where cut off by a thump to his nose from an extremely large Tarkin bodyguard's blaster.

'That's the problem. This is the Empire, not the Republic. We think that you as a Senator have been engaging in secret anti-Imperial propaganda for too long. As a Senator, you relfect your constituents. Time to wipe you both out. Which reminds me!'

Tarkin snapped his fingers. The bodyguard, who also doubled as a general prison guard and torturer grabbed Jarjar by the neck. Chained, Jarjar could offer no resistance. He backhanded a slap at Jarjar. Then whacked him on the back of the neck and kicked him in the ankles, painfully. Jarjar fell down. 'Howww rude,' he spluttered to himself. 'Take him away!' commanded Tarkin.

Jarjar found himself in the nearest prison cell. He was chained, accompanied by Whitesnake, Tarkin, a guard, a couple of very strong looking prison guards and a Wookiee. Wookiee's where 2 metre high, fury, powerful, bipeds. This one was employed by Tarkin as a basic muscle man. Tarkin snapped his fingers and Whitesnake asked Jarjar, 'Now, what are the code commands to the Naboo defensive systems,' Jarjar had no idea which was odd as he thought the Imperials knew that, 'Don't know?' Whitesnake raised his hand. The two guards hit Jarjar in the chest and back. Ohhhhhh, then in the face. One grabbed Jarjar by the nose and banged it on the table hard. Bang, bang, bang. 'Want to reply?' Jarjar was in no position to reply, having his nose swollen and coughing blood. The guards punched and kicked Jarjar. Bosh, crack, whack, scratch, thump 'take that, and that, and some more of that,' The wookiee cuddled Jarjar in a painful bear hug, crushing his ribs, then he elbowed Jarjar's forehead grabbed Jarjar's long Gungan tongue and pulled it, dragging Jarjar along by it. Jarjar was kicked on the floor a few times. This was no way to treat a respected Imperial Senator! Kick, kick, thump, whack, 'how rude do you think that is you muppet?' Bosh, bosh, bosh, bosh. The session ended with the wookiee giving a slap to Jarjar's nose, breaking it.

'I think that will do for now,' smiled Tarkin. Jarjar was left, bleeding, with broken bones, a broken rib, fractured hips, broken tabular, one of his knees was chipped, a broken nose countless brushes and scratches. Oh, dear! As they walked away, Tarkin asked Whitesnake, 'What do you think of my torture methods?'

'A little old fashioned. Some of the more modern electronic techniques are more effective. Plus a few of the mental ones.'

'True. But then I like the old-fashioned approached. It's more personnel!'

Back on Naboo Gram and Matt looked at each other. The two where hopelessly outnumbered. Gram said to Matt grimly, 'To death then,' and Matt smiled back. Suddenly, then by some miracle, the hovercraft turned around and started shooting at the Stormtroopers. It's top opened to reveal a few Gungans and above all of them, Mugwort. The stormtroopers stopped in amazement that their craft should be full of their enemies. They fled in a hurry.

'Come on,' he called to the two who both jumped upon the craft.

'How did you pull that one of?' Matt asked to Mugwort.

Mugwort smiled, 'well, it turns out that as part of their attack force consists of these x45 spray-craft. I've encountered them before. And I know of their little weak spot. So we managed to capture a few. Your Droid Okay?' he finished, looking at 124 who was just staggering to his feet. The droid wasn't hit with a strong enough blaster bolt to inflict serious damage, but had become a little quiter. To everyone's relief. Mugwort continued, 'Some of us have made a stand a little to the East. The ford of Darrowdale. It's a strong place and the site of an ancient Naboo victory. We can hold out their for a while. It's not that far, we should hurry.' Which they did. The Hovercraft whirled upwards and sped on it's way in the sky. Mugwort's guidance was sufficient for it to avoid any Imperials. But they did see signs of battle on the way. Some of the villages on the ground used to be quite populated. But looking down, it was something of a lunar landscape. Many villages where destroyed some still on fire or bellowing smoke. Also large numbers of Gungans corpses where littering the country, some of them tied or hanged, obviously mercilessly murdered.


	4. Darrowdale

The first person they saw was Gram's girlfriend, Neela. She smiled at the two saying, 'Made it then?' The hovercraft flew onto the clifface of the strong Darrowdale fortress. This was a whole series of caves, underground tunnels and forts in the East of Naboo. It was a strong place, and many of Naboo's people had fled there to escape the Empire's clampdown. In it, Matt saw Gungan's humans, droids, Mon Calami, Bothan's, a bewildering variety of various furry, scaly, many-clawed creatures. Neela was accompanied by Mandy.

'I heard what happened. I'm sorry that you had to witness such sad deeds. Though I am pleased to see you.'

Neela hugged Mandy. Mandy replied, 'Yes, these are sad events. All that devastating. My heart fears for Naboo. Apart from anything else also, my work has been severely disrupted. One of my best colleagues was a Gungan. I'll miss him.'

Neela coughed, 'I know you love your work, but is now the best time to be thinking of it what with everything else going on? What was it, research into the Maw? Interesting stuff maybe but…..'

'Yes, your probably right. Ah, Mugwort. Pleased to see you alive. I think we've finally seen the Empire for what it is. You've decided to fight it at long last?' that was Mandy, who was also accompanied by Alex.

Mugwort replied, 'Yes, now I will. It hasn't been a hasty decision. I did think that Palpatine's clones where sometimes way over the top during the clone wars, the widespread destruction on some of the clone worlds, for example, but there always seemed to be a convenient execuse for that. Even the declariotion of his dictatorship I hoped to overthrow by peaceful methods. But now, I consider the use of force to be the only reasonable option.' As it happened Mugwort, even, was not completely correct about that. A few years later one group of people would have a chance to end the Emperor's rule peacefully. But Mugwort wasn't aware of that, and forceful opposition was the only right option for him.

One person that Mugwort did see to his relief was the Gungan Issac. 'We're safe here now. This country is protected by a magic field. No enemy can get through once it's been held.' said Issac. Issac also had quite an adventurous time. He had been part of a party who had been attacked by Stormtroopers. Issac had saved his fellows by knowing about the fort's powers and heading towards it. His group had just made it, while the Stormtroopers had been foolish enough to attempt to follow them. Many of the Stormtroopers had perished on the border.

Mugwort shook his head sadly. 'We might have the power to keep out some of the minor servants of the Empire. It isn't magic, it is in fact a girlde of light-sided JedI spells which protects this force. I assure you that there are powers in the galaxy that could get through. Dreadful powers. But those that need to be fought. But it won't be easy or maybe even possible. I've encountered some of the powers of evil in the Galaxy before. Many times in fact. And on many an occasion I have had a bad time over it. But enough of me.'

There was a large commotion in the centre. 'What's going on?'

'Ah, Mugwort, I believe that the chief of the Gungans is about to say a few words,' answered Mandy.

The chief of the Gungans was rather larger than your average Gungan. Addressing a large crowd of his fighters, he became a little tongue tied. The best he could say was, 'deeeeeer, good luck everyone!' The defenders seemed less than inspired by these comments. Jarjar would have done a better job.

Which was when Neela took a hand. She stood up next to the chief and almost ripped the mic from his hand. She decided to make a speech. She cried, 'Now, come. We have been betrayed. We face much evil. I see the look of despair on your faces but don't let that rule you. We are together as Naboo. We can strive through this whatever those might throw at us………' and etc. A very impressive speech it was admittedly. It certainly did seem to boost the Gungans morale. Which was it's whole purpose. The Gungans morale needed boosted. Especially seen as the Empire in the shape of Tarkin and Whitesnake had been employing psychological warfare. The humans in Naboo had been sent an individual message by post or by phone or whatever.

It basically read, 'Loyal citizens of the Empire. There is no need for strife. You are humans. The emperor needs humans in his new order. You could join us. Most of you that is. Those that have been undertaking illegal activity will need to face justice of course. Leave the Gungans to the fate which they have deserved. This is not your quarrel, do not be part of the problem.' It need not be said that many of the humans accepted this offer. This was a desperate situation after all.

Many of the Gungans had also been sent a message. A different one. This one said, 'betrayers of the empire. Prepare to meet your fate. You people have been earmarked for death. You cannot stand against the Imperial might. We have had enough of you vermin. You are all to be exterminated.' and words of such ilk. That message was a little bit of psychological teasing from Whitesnake. Tarkin hadn't been too sure about that saying that it would be telling the Gungans what would be happening to them,

'Shouldn't we be giving that away?' he had asked, but Whitesnake who knew a thing or two about psychological tactics had disagreed saying that it would increase the despair amongst the Gungans.

'And if we're going to give them a bad time of it, lets punish them properly,' he had argued. As it happened, this message was not completely necessary. There had been enough survivors of wholesale massacres of the Gungan population for the people of Naboo to have an idea of the Imperial policy.

Indeed, in recent days, the story was one of Imperial triumph. Large areas of Naboo where totally ethnically-cleansed from Gungans in the worst example of that practice. The southern continents of Brixton, Amazonia, Pacifix where cleared of Gungans. Indeed cleared of large populations. And what was left of the environment there was been destroyed beyond repair. The Empire had shown itself willing to use Nerve Gas, choking Gas, poison, mass cluster bombs, Nuclear weapons, boiling the seas and rivers, creating landslips, fireballs to achieve their goal.

Whitesnake turned to Tarkin with a nasty humour, 'Do you know, that in times of the past, human civilization caused mass-extinctions on the planets which they had colonized. This was done by accident. It was quite controversial at times, but really the people didn't know what they where doing. This must be the first time that someone has done this quite deliberately. If making a statement is what you wanted, that is what we are doing!'


	5. The battle of Naboo

As he was saying this, he watched as large, vessels from the Star Destroyer deliberately poured in large, black poisonous dusk-clouds into the atmosphere. 'Won't be much left of Naboo but desert by the time we've finished,' he laughed.

But there where still pockets where there was resistance to the program. One of these was of course, Darrowdale. It had been the subject of a major assault. But with much fighting, the Imperials had been pushed back. Matt, however, was nearly slain in this. He had lost his way in the fort's defence and had found himself outside surrounded by many stormtroopers. He was only saved by a cry from Mugwort and a charge which temporily pushed the stormtroopers back.

But although they had survived in Darrowdale, just about survive was all the defenders could do. And they knew that this could not last for ever. They where trapped with no way of getting of the planet due to the light-speed blackout and the forces of the Empire seemed endless.

A desperate council meeting was held. Deep in the depths of the fortress containing many of the leaders of the Gungans and Naboo also Mugwort and others. Including Neela. She said, 'Ok, things look pretty hopeless. But, actually I do have an idea.'

Mugwort looked at her in surprise. 'This had better be a good one to get us out of this situation,' replied he.

Mandy added, 'Well, I have a desperate idea as well,'

'Not now, Mandy, don't interrupt. Fine Neela, lets here it.'

'Well, we are heavily outnumbered, right? Really in terms of a natural conflict we haven't a chance, in terms of arms. But I think we do have one chance. One thing I have noticed about Imperial operations is that they do tend to be very leadership lead. Especially as I hear that in this case, the leader is Governor Tarkin. The Imperials will be under unthinking obedience to him, I am sure. Now, if we can somehow assassinate Tarkin, this will confuse their operations considerably. Possibly even enough to allow us to slip through the net of their encirclement.'

Mugwort muttered to himself, 'Killing the leader, how very original,' but he couldn't think of a better plan. As it happened, it wasn't a bad idea. Weather she knew it or was just lucky, Neela had hit on something. Tarkin was one of the major forces of evil in the Empire's hierarchy. If the Naboo's had succeeded in killing him, just possibly the program might have been rejected by the Empire as too costly. But it was a big effort to try.

The Naboo's had to use every ship they could spare simply to get into Space and to challenge the Imperials. Mugwort, Gram and Matt where there as usual. 'They'd better pay me an awful amount as compensation for some of this trouble,' Gram had muttered to Matt as their ship launched.

But for a time the Imperials where confused. 'What exactly are they planning to do is this some kind of glorious last stand?' Whitesnake had wondered.

Incredibly, amazingly, the Naboo fleet managed to reach through the Imperial ships. Through much fighting, a small part of it even travelled as far as Tarkin's mother ship. Tarkin himself had to duck as one ship, with Issac as commander fired laser's at the command deck.

But that was as far as the Naboo fleet got. The ship containing Mugwort, Gram, Matt and their couple of annoying droids had been sidetracked by a prototype Imperial Star Destroyer. Despite their best efforts, all the people could do was to keep the Star Destroyer occupied while others stretched towards Tarkin. Finally, inevitably, a shot from the Star Destroyer caused considerable damage to the Flintoff. 'Where out of action here, the only options we have is to dive to Naboo,' and so he did.


	6. Defeat

But those which reached the Imperial mother ship where far less fortunate. Once he'd gotten over his shock, Tarkin let loose everything which he had at them. Every Tie fighter, Shuttle destroyer, Cruiser, any type of fighting ship which he had available was thrown at those that had the check to manage to get so close to him. The Naboo fleet was thrown back and surrounded. Then assaulted by arms of might, it was destroyed. Utterly. Issac did manage to get a few of the surviving ships around him at the end. They pressed themselves close together and made a heroic last stand.

Not that it made that much difference. Surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned, they where destroyed. Issac himself was in the last ship. Manfully as he did get a few of his enemies, he was ended in a fiery bolt as his ship was exploded by his enemies.

Well, it was a close run thing, but Tarkin had survived. The Gungans where desperately disappointed. Actually, one person who was also disappointed, but he daren't admit it even to himself, although he might have mentioned it to his servant, Baldric, was Whitesnake. 'Don't see why you should be a little downcast at Tarkin's survival,' said Baldrick.

'Well, I shouldn't say this, or even think it, but I do believe that I am next in line.'

'err, so what?' Baldrick was not a very clear thinker.

'Because, nincompoop, should he be killed, I would be the one to succeed him. I have to admit, I would like the chance of an independent command. I wasn't on the ship which he was attacked as you know. But don't mention this. Even if Tarkin knew I was thinking this he could have me executed for treason.'

'Er, mention what, exactly?' asked Baldrick who had lost the train of thought.

'Oh, yeah, I had forgotten I was speaking to you. Carry on.' concluded Whitesnake at his rather dim assistant giving him a clip around the ear for good measure.

Later, Tarkin did have a word with Whitesnake about the attack. But one thing he mentioned. 'Do we have any prisoners from it?'

'Yes, Commander, a few. We did offer a chance to surrender and some took it. We have them in secure cells now.'

'Excellent. We will execute them. All of them. Slowly and painfully. For having the check to have a plan to assassinate me. One thing we have to do is to get the idea of assinating the leader out of the minds of our enemies. A question though. Should we execute them hotly and show it across all of Naboo or execute them coldly in the depths of our freezer?'

'Ah, good question. Well, if our desire is to simply create pain, them probably freezing is the best option. I dunno though, it is a little, shall we say, dull, to watch? I might prefer hotly.'

'We think alike,' laughed Tarkin horribly. 'Hot in fire is more entertaining. I say put them all in an airlock and flame them in a laser bolt from our main ships.' Which is what they did. None survived out of those that where part of the attack on the Imperial mother ship.

Meantime, the Imperial program to wipe out the Gungans had continued out of Naboo. The Empire was thorough in that respect. There where other planets in the Naboo system called Herts. Many of those had Gungans on. They where rounded up. Pretty comprehensively as well. The other place where there was Gungans was the Imperial galactic world of Coruscant. There was a Naboo sector where dwelt the Gungans. Not for long. Whether in their homes, at work at leisure or even in Bars, Imperial Stormtroopers where under instructions to capture the Gungans who, if they surrendered, where taken away. Then soon murdered. Whole mounds of earth where made out of the carcasses of the dead Gungans. Within a week none could be seen in the Galaxy outside Naboo.

So, it was only in Naboo and in particular, the fortress of Darrowdale that resistance continued. But there was much lamentation at the failure of the assassination attempt, which couldn't be repeated, and despair about how to proceed from here. Mugwort had tried manfully, on his return to keep resistance focussed and tirelessly strode or rode or flew from border to border repelling the Imperials and keeping people from despairing in the dark times, at least while he was present.

But at a brief pause he met Matt who had a few questions to ask him. 'This plan that the Empire is carrying out, this…….. Genocide, why are they doing it, it just seems like plain slaughter to me.'

'Perceptive question Matt. Not many seem to think of this in these times, they're just concentrating on resisting. Well, I do flatter myself to know something of the mind of Palpatine. I think he wants to make some kind of statement. It does seem a ridiculous over-blowing of the original crime to slaughter an entire species over it. I think he's just doing it because he can. There's another point to. I don't know if you know this, but there is some history between the Gungans and Palpatine, or at least between Naboo and Palpatine. He used to be the Senator there. Before he was even Chancellor. Now he must have been aware of the presence of the Gungans. It is perfectly possible that something personal occurred between them. He may well have waited this long to gain his revenge.'

'But why pick on the Gungans? What about the rest of Naboo. What's he doing to them?'

'Well, if you've looked he is doing quite a lot to the rest of Naboo. Namely, I would say destroying it. But he is always biased in favour of humanity. It's been a nasty side of him ever since he became powerful. He probably doesn't want to slaughter all of the Humans on Naboo. The Gungans are also the minority. It would be easier for him to pick on them than the Humans.'

'But see here, Mugwort, this is terrible. The Empire is trying to destroy completely a total intelligent species. They can't do that. Their not going to succeed are they?'

Mugwort was quiet for a moment or two. Then he spoke softly, but quite audibly to Matt and very sadly, 'I just hope not, I really hope not. And not to the Gungans. Their a remarkable species in their own way. They would be a considerable loss to the Galaxy.'

'You don't sound very optimistic about this.'

Neela had just come into this conversation. 'Why do you say that about the Gungans, Muggers, what's so remarkable about them?'

Mugwort replied a little grumply. He had often thought that Humans, even the best of them, didn't always appreciate their fellow species in the Galaxy. 'They are remarkably level-headed, they appreciate the environment they are in, they are generous, I have been on the receiving hand of their hospitality on many an occasion, they don't fight amongst each other, in fact, it takes a lot to rile them into fighting at all, which is more than I can sometimes say for you Humans. Indeed the Gungans show a togetherness and sense of value for their species which many others could envy.

Recently in fact Palpatine did try to put one clan of theirs above the rest, which could have had benefits to Imperial rule to the determent to the rest of the species. Guess what? The Gungans weren't playing. The divide and rule tactics which has worked so well on many other planets, even on many human ones was rejected out of hand here. Indeed it wasn't even seriously considered. The major reason been that the Gungans have to much love and respect for each other generally to be divided in that manner.'

'All very well, Mugwort, but what are we to do now?'

'Well, we've survived for one week. We can survive for another. And another.'

Replied Gram, who had also just joined the conversation.

'Look, we're under siege. We can't keep this up for ever. Our supplies will run out, we have nothing coming in from outside the system and the Naboo's cannot survive indefinitely in isolation. We have to think of something.'

The same thoughts, strangely enough, was been considered by the Gungan's enemies. A conference was been had between Tarkin, Whitesnake, and the dread figure of the Empire, who was attending via galactic vidphone. Whitesnake thought that it was not often that he seemed shy and nervous, but he was in this case, been sandwiched between two of the most deadly powers of the Galaxy.

Tarkin was giving an updated report. 'We have made considerable progress. We have exterminated large numbers of Gungans, the vast majority in fact. The rest of the population is cowered, in prison or defected to us. The cities are empty, destroyed, and large parts of the country is ruined beyond repair.'

The emperor interrupted slowly. 'But I hear that some still resist. We do not have total control. The whole point of this exercise was to exterminate the Gungans utterly.' Every work spoken by the Emperor was like the breath of Satan. His servants, with the only possible exception of Tarkin, where as terrified of him as his enemies. But that was how he liked to maintain his rule. By terror.

'Well, over to my subordinate, Whitesnake,' gestured Tarkin.

'Thanks a bunch,' thought Whitesnake to himself. Tarkin did think that he was doing Whitesnake a favour by having communicate personally with the Emperor and increasing his influence. But this was a pretty nervy encounter. Possibly Tarkin was trying to test Whitesnake as well, seeing how he would cope in this situation. As it happened, Whitesnake did a fairly competent job.

'Well, my lord, yes, it appears that are strong pockets which we where initially unaware of that some can resist us for a time. The latest computer models show that we could be delayed for some weeks, possibly. Even it is shown that some Gungans may escape us yet.'

'Which would take away the main point of the exercise,' interrupted Tarkin.

'Hmm, that would be, unfortunate. Do you have any suggestions?' said the Emperor. Whitesnake almost visibly trembled at the word, 'unfortunate,' just about the worst word the Emperor could use in this situations.

But Tarkin continued, 'Yes. I don't like to say it, because as you know, I prefer to use the fleet when I can, but I think we need to used our most potent weapon. We do need him in situations like these.'

'You mean my main assassin. My guard of destruction. My apprentice even. Vader. But I know your mind, Tarkin. You are suspicious, are you not of such powers he and I posses which you cannot control. You have no need to be. I can sense in fact, that there are, Jedi inspired influences on Naboo. More than it's fair share, it appears. There's no shame in admitting that you need the aid of the Sith in this case. Very well. I will bring Vader to you.'


	7. Vader

So, a few days later there was an arrival at Whitesnake's ship. Eerie smoke emitted from the shuttle bay. The shuttle slowly opened and out of it stepped a large, black-robed, black-uniformed figure of a man, breathing deeply and staring at the ship ahead of him. Vader. Or Lord Darth Vader as he was properly known. The strongman in the Galaxy. The Lord of the dread Sith. Posser of incredible powers unattainable to normal man - which did create a little resentment, even on his own side. He was greeted by Whitesnake.

'Ah, my lord, a great pleasure to see you, you are familiar with the situation here?'

Vader waved him away with his large clove and continued walking. 'You may dispense with the pleasantries. I am aware of what is happening here. You have not fulfilled your targets have you? Well, I am here to achieve that. By whatever means I see fit.

He continued walking. Whitesnake felt his skin crawl as he looked into Vader's face. It was like looking into Death's. In many ways he had a lot of sympathy with Tarkin's views that it was best to sort their problems out themselves without resorting to the Sith Lord. It was an admission of the fleet's failure. But he did amuse himself by shoving Baldrick in front of Vader and watching Vader arrogantly march through Baldrick, knocking him over.

Whitesnake and Baldrick had an amusing little interlude earlier on. Baldrick, had, for some unknown reason of his own, interrupted Whitesnake and said, 'Important tasks for today sir,'

'oh, yes, and what would they be then?'

Baldrick looked at his notepad 'Well, sir, there's breakfast, an order of pest-repellents, sending a detachment down to Naboo, interrogating Binks some more, Lunch, staff-meeting, and evening free, yes that just about it.'

Whitesnake just looked at Baldrick. 'Are you sure you have everything?'

'Yes, sir, sure, everything down here.'

'Does the arrival of a certain Dark lord ring any bells with you?'

'Oh, crumbs, yes I forgot,' Baldrick turned the page over, 'Oh, yes, it was on the other side.'

'Baldrick, you are far and away, totally useless. What a good thing I don't have to rely on you for information. You remember to not down an order of pest-repellents, but omit the coming of the most powerful man in the Galaxy after the Empire. The man with unstoppable, force-induced powers. The man who could, at a whim, execute everyone on this ship. And you forgot.' Whitesnake gave Baldrick a slap. A hard slap in fact.

Later on, Vader meet Tarkin. Tarkin was one of the few people in the galaxy unfazed by Vader's getup. Vader said, 'Yes, I think I can see what the problem is here. Jedi trouble. Well I suppose I can't blame you for having problems there. But I will sort it out. Take me down to, Darrowdale, was it? And I will see what I can do. I will require a little assistance, but not much.' And it was agreed.

As they watched Vader travel down to Naboo, Tarkin turned to Whitesnake and sighed. 'I do hate calling on Vader for aid. He's just so…….unpredictable. Yes, I will confess that he posses unnatural strong powers which none can withstand. But that's just the trouble. Their unnatural. Our constant reliant on that Sith will come back to haunt us one day, you can be sure of that.'

Darkness fell on the out walls of Darrowdale. On top of a gun tower a human called Philip was interrupted by a sound behind him. 'Ah, Mugwort, all quiet here.'

'Yes, a bit too quiet. Why have the Imperials appeared to soften their push all of a sudden. I don't like it.

'Don't ask me. I assume their just re-grouping. Besides, they can't break through our magic circle, can they?'

'Don't be so sure. I have had a feeling. A bad feeling. Something is been planned.'

'Look, Mugwort over there, one man is coming towards us. He's well armed, but he's only one. Think I can take him out.'

Philip was talking about Vader. He was in for a surprise. Philip let out a volley of shots at Vader. Vader simply held out his hand and swiped them away. Then Vader lifted up his arms and threw out bolts of lightning at the fort. These exploded causing peril of fire, one landing right by Philip. 'That's Vader. Careful everyone, this could get ugly,' cried Mugwort.

Well, this caused concern but not outright panic yet. A patrol of soldiers moved from the fortress and surrounded Vader. One Lord of the Sith v 20 Naboo soldiers. No contest. Vader seemed simply invulnerable. No blaster shot was able to get near him. He was able to leap 20 feet into the air smash down onto the soldiers, swinging his lightsaber, Vader's main weapon like a fiery sword to cut them to pieces. Vader marched forward, he pointed at the tops of the walls and as if by magic, well dark sorcery anyway, the walls crashed down, Vader doing by himself the job which all the hardware of the Empire's fleet had failed to do. Vader came close to the fort's walls, right up to them and let loose a force-storm.

This basically caused the weather to turn into fiery, stormy chaos, the earth to rock, violent winds to sweep across the landscape and chunks of huge, pure rocks to fly from Vader. It was a Sith technique which Vader had managed to perfect. Mugwort cried, 'Everyone, we have to stop him somehow, I have no faith that a Jedi girdle will hold up against this foe.' But even with scores of his own soldiers available, Mugwort could not stop Vader.

Vader pushed out and the walls collapsed totally in rock and concrete leaving the defenders exposed. Vader was, it was true a little delayed by the light-sided girdle when he came across it. But if anything it just made him angry. He held out his light-sabre and swotted at the invisible line chanting Sith words of power. Then with a snarl pushed through, followed with a cheer by the Imperial forces.

One Naboo, a young man called Edmund was then struck with a bright idea. He jumped up behind Vader, then struck. But not at the Sith Lord at his light-sabre thinking to disarm Vader. Vader did not appreciate this. He turned around, grabbed Edmund by his neck and threw Edmund up in the air, and used the force to tear him apart before Edmund landed, dead. 'Don't try that one on me,' Vader growled, darkly.

Trex was watching this and said to Mugwort, 'Well, at least we've managed to get him angry,'

'That's good is it?'

'Well, I've heard that one of the things to do to a Sith lord is to make them angry, then they don't think,'

'I'm not so sure I like the idea of him been angry myself. But look, we can't stop him in this situation. We have little time, I'm going back to have a word with our leaders to see if there is anything which can be salvaged.

Well, Vader was broadly satisfied with bringing down Darrowdale's Girdle, exposing it. Once he had down that job, he returned to the fleet. 'I think I have done enough, I will leave the rest to you, you should be able to handle it from here,' he said to Tarkin before leaving on his own ship to return to the task which he had been undertaking.

Back down on Darrowdale there was now mass panic. 'How long do you give this fort standing without the Girdle?' Mugwort asked of Trex.

'Well, we can set up a few of our independent shields, but the trouble with them is…..'

'Their outdated, easy to overpower and generally rubbish?' Mugwort interrupted.

'A rather accurate criticism.'

'So what do we do?'

A voice coughed beside the council. 'Well, we could try my idea, which does have the advantage that it won't be expected.' That was Mandy.

'fine, what's your idea?'

'We fly off out of the Planet and through the dust-cloud of the Maw.'

'Oh, right, we travel through a fiery, uncharted, dust-cloud through which no-one has passed through and survived, that certainly would be unexpected,' said Mugwort a trifle ironically.

'You don't understand. We have in fact done a bit of research on it in the last few months. I'm not sure why, but I just had a feeling we might need to travel through it. We think that there is a way through, where we would be hidden from Imperial sensors. The dust-cloud travels way beyond the orbit of the Imperial fleet. We could from there journey to the outer-solar-system away from the Imperial light-speed lockdown and beam into hyperspace and escape.'

'Um, you think,' said Stuxo a little sceptically.

'Well, we pretty much know. It's not quite as bad as everyone thinks. Yes, it will be dangerous. Yes, I doubt if we all, or even most, will survive. But if you would prefer to stay here and argue with the Imperials…….'

Well, there was some discussion, but it was agreed that this was the best plan available. But there was little time. Despite the fact that most of the space-fearing craft the defenders possessed did appear to be in good order, 'I had the feeling that we might be off soon,' explained Mandy. Somehow, however, the Imperial attackers must have gotten wind of their plans because they launched an all-out assault. In desperation as many as possible leaped into the available ships, which did not include everyone as Stormtroopers moved with devastating speed and efficiency, overtaking many of the defenders.

Coincidentally, the Imperials repeated their offer to many of the Naboo humans who could accept it to join them, ditch the principles which any possessed and live. Many accepted this, however reluctantly. The humans, where only, well human after all and did not fancy dying.

But the race to launch the ships was just won by those who had reached them on time. On the time of a very grey morning, they took off and rose into the sky as the Imperial soldiers fired at the underside of the ships.

As he flew up into what counted as Naboo's atmosphere many looked down in horror at what the Empire had down to Naboo. Not much remained of it's pleasant green country for which it had been renowned. In fact it had been one of the cleanest planets in the Galaxy, partly due to the pro-environment policies of the Gungans. But now much of it was desert, or even exploding volcanic larvae. Large black clouds blighted the atmosphere. No sun was able to penetrate the surface of the dead world.

But in a strange way this actually helped those who where trying to flee. The darkness meant that actually it was difficult for any of the Imperials to see the ships as they streaked to the Maw, so many of the bolts which was fired at them missed any targets which the attackers might have had.

So, with considerable trepidation, Mugwort looked up and moved into one of the most dangerous areas of space in the Galaxy. The Maw of Naboo.


	8. Through the Maw

Many of those that where hiding in the fort did not make it to this little collection of ships. Once inside the barrier, the Imperial soldiers moved with a terrible speed. Many where overtaken. Any Gungans which where seen where shot on sight. Whitesnake had now been drafted in to take charge of the final assault. 'Probably another test,' he sighed to himself as he did so.

One group of Gungans where overtaken before they could make it of the fort. These included Trex's wife Stuxo and several people who had been in Issac's birthday party. Most where sadly felled in a volley of shots from Storrmtrooper rifle blasts. The list of survivors of that party was becoming rather thin. Stuxo was surrounded by Stormtropers. She pleaded, 'Why do you treat us this badly? What have we done that is so bad? Co-operate with fellow Galactic citizens? Tried to improve our planet? To live and let live? All we want to do is to live as we see fit. We don't deserve this fate you have given us.'

Whitesnake walked up to her. 'Very impressive words.' he said sarcastically. 'Yes, yes, very impressive. I'm moved indeed. Unfortunately, doesn't change a thing,' he pulled out his blaster and shot her dead.

Just a word about the status of women in Gungan society. Well, in some human civilizations in the galaxy women have been badly discriminated against in terms of power, influence and treatment. This was not the case with the Gungans or indeed Naboo. Women had equal status and exercised considerable economic muscle. Not that this made much difference to the way they where treated when the Empire's revenge took place.

Gram, Neela and Matt didn't make it to the fleet's trip to Naboo's Maw either. By ill luck, the three happened to be on the edge of the fort when the Storm troopers entered the base. They where totally cut off from the departure. 'Ok, we're going to have to try and do this another way,' said Gram hurriedly. He had parked his own ship in a slightly different spot and so he made to it. But as the three, with there two robots,

'Do we really have to take them?' Gram had said as he did not get own with the two,

Neela with some good sense replied,

'Yes, we do. I know you think they are irritating, but droids have their uses, which is why people use droids. Can you calculate a ships journey to the last mile in a second? Or communicate in a million languages if necessary?' Gram had to reluctantly shake his head. 'Well then we're taking them,' Neela insisted.

Just on their way out, Matt spotted from afar the fleet trying to take off under attack. 'Their having a hard time I don't think the fleet is going to escape under that assault,' commented he.

'So what do you suggest we do?' asked Gram.

'Help in some way. Fine we can't reach them, but can't we fire at the Imperials or something? At least that way we might draw off some of the assault?'

Gram was a bit reluctant about this, thinking that they where in enough danger. But Matt and Neela had said that the Naboo's where allies so he finally agreed. He turned the ship around and fired a few volleys at the Imperial army. The shots where a little wild as Gram was in a hurry, but it worked after a fashion. A large section of Storm troopers did see his ship fly off and in fury made after it as an escapee. Maybe it drew off just enough of the attackers to let the escaping fleet depart the way it did. After all the Storm troopers had no way of knowing if there where any Gungans on board.

But it did make the flight of Gram, Matt and Neela perilous indeed. The ship was in range of the Imperial army guns and so many a volley was launched at them as the ship flew off.

'So, where are we off to. Without light speed we seem to be limited in options.' Asked Neela. She had a point to. Looking down at the Planet, it seemed to her that anything of what she might have recognized was now dark ash.

'Well, I have an idea. There are a group of friends I have that I could deal with. I think I might call on them. They happen to have a colony or two around here and as they are rather chummy with the Empire, I believe they would not have been attacked.'

'Oh, yeah, what type of friends who are they?' asked Matt.

'Hutts, a very good group of people to know, I believe they could help us out of this.'

'Hutts, did you say friends? Are you sure?' said Neela scornfully. She was expression a popular and a rather correct opinion. The Hutts where…….. Well, to say disgusting would be putting a good front on disgusting! A group of large, obese lizard type of creature who had a tendency to dominate the underworld of galactic dealings. There where those who suspected that the Emperor had something to do with the Hutts as the Hutts rise to power came at roughly a similar time as his, but nothing could be proved.

Gram did have the good grace to reply sheepishly, 'Well, Ok, friends might be pushing it a bit. But I did have dealings with them. They do know me and together we just be able to get our way out of this. Especially with your help.' He gave a rather odd look at Neela who, as it happened was looking particularly beautiful at that moment.

She gave a wink and a sigh, 'ohhhh, la, la, Hutts, whatever next. Oh, well, whatever I can do to help. I can dance a bit you know.'

Mugwort was staring deep into the heart of the Maw as if transfixed. The Maw. There where legends about it in this part of the Galaxy. Terror stories in fact. Although it was possible to travel in it a bit and survive, no-one had managed to travel right through it. Mandy did say rather confidently that space-fearing technology had improved so it was possible, Mugwort was far from convinced. His mood wasn't brightened by Mandy saying, 'Well, we are not too sure about the course to be plotted. We think that we know all the Maw but there are places anywhere we go that we haven't checked.'

'Those asteroids up ahead have been charted haven't they?' Mugwort asked of a group of asteroids.

'Er, no, they haven't actually, Were just going to have to plot around them!'

'Oh, this just gets better,' sighed Mugwort as he looked around. The maw was definitely an impressive sight, if scary. Whole clouds of dust and rock swirled in bewildering fashion of attractive greens, blues, reds and whites. At least it was true that the fleet was for a time hidden from the Imperials while they where in the Maw.

Mugwort was kept very busy. His knowledge of space fearing was used to the limit in keeping some of the fleet intact.

For a few of the vessels, however, the strain was too much. Great bolts of flame, rocks in space or gravitation pressure caused many to explode to their doom. Many more where damaged with every effort undertaken to make the vessels even space worthy for when the vessels exited the Maw let alone have some form of battle-readiness if necessary.

Many of the Gungans, where fortunately talented technicians. In fact much of the research into the Maw had been undertaken by Gungans as part of Mandy's team. Indeed an assistant of hers, Burro, who was in one of the lead vessels had taken work without whom there would have been no trip possible through the Maw.

For several days the rag-tag fleet travelled in this dangerous fashion. Then Trex had some news. 'Well, we have good news. The first we've had for some time. It appears that we're outside the imperial light-speed shutdown. Does that mean we can enter hyperspace?'

Trex was ever the optimist. Plus, to be honest, not quite your seasoned space-traveller. There was slight ironic laugh from Mandy. 'Not a chance. We can't possibly plot a light-speed course through the Maw. We'd end up in one of those dust clouds for sure. But it's not long till we come out. Only a few hours.'

'But we must be ready. We will need to escape to light-speed as quick as possible once we leave. It won't take the Imperial fleet long to spot us!' advised Mugwort. Mugwort was tired he had had little sleep. Firstly the very real possibility that at any moment the ship might crash into some uncharted obstacle kept him awake anyway. Also every sinew of his body and mind was kept very busy in keeping as many ships as possible through the maw.

In fact, in happier times, the riding of the Maw would have been considered an all-time great achievement. One of the great deeds of the galaxy. Regardless of what came later. Indeed there was an instant problem. Trex informed, 'Well, we can come out of the Maw, but there is a problem. There is only one route available and guess what, a few Imperial ships are there,

'Well, we're just going to have to fight through them to enter light-speed.' said Mugwort.

In the meantime, Whitesnake was concentrating on the lead Imperial battleship called Sedious. His chief underling, Baldrick did not seem concerned. 'Well, that's it then, we've wiped out every single Gungan on Naboo, all but destroyed the planet as a living entity and any survivors have encountered certain death surely in the Maw.'

Whitesnake shock his head.

'I'm not convinced. Besides, I've a bad feeling about those in the Maw. I know it's supposed to be impassable, but they're cunning you know, those Jedi. Including those influenced by the Jedi sometimes. We have lost contact with the fleet in the Maw. I just want to keep things in readiness for the occasion.' There was a bleep on his vidscreen. It was Tarkin.

'I am here to keep you instructed on the situation as it is for the moment. We have accounted for every Gungan on Naboo and any elsewhere on the other planets in the system, plus all of those in the Naboo section on the Capital galactic planet of Coruscant, there so seem to be a lot of non-human enclaves there, don't they? And any of the others which could be dispersed in the Galaxy. But you tell me that there is a fleet encountered for. In what I am reliably informed is one of the most dangerous areas of space in the Galaxy…….'

'Ahhha, here it comes,' thought Whitesnake. 'I have been quite impressed with Tarkin up to now, but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have a typical piece of Admiralty rubbish coming up. What's he going to have us do now? Possibly enter the Maw after them, causing major unnecessary casualties on our part, maybe even causing the enemy to slip out of our grasp.' But what he actually said was a very slow 'sir.'

Whitesnake tried to keep his face as impassive as he could. But it was possible that Tarkin was able to read a part of his thinking. Tarkin laughed. 'Just keep a watch on the Maw. Unfortunately there are many ways of exiting it, my navigators tell me, so we don't know which one the survivors are going to use. So if they come out quick, you may be a little stretched. But I will rely on you to use your military know-how to take whatever course you see fit.'


	9. Slaughter

Tarkin continued, 'But one thing I should say. Your priority is the Gungans. Not a single one of them must escape. You will concentrate the entire fleet power on this policy,'

Whitesnake interrupted, 'But what of the other Naboo refugees? Some of them are very dangerous criminals who could come back to haunt us. Should we just let them go?'

Tarkin replied, 'Not if we can help it. But we could seek them in due course. I must tell you to focus on the primary purpose of this whole operation. To destroy the Gungans. That we should do. Just think of the embarrassment it would be if we put in all this effort to destroy a species, just because we can, and then we don't? If this happens to be down to you, you will suffer the consequences of the Empire. I like you, as you know, but now is the time to show your worth. Don't let me down.' Tarkin signed off. Despite the dire warning, Whitesnake was very much impressed. Yes, Tarkin was ruthless with those who opposed him. Or even those that got in the way of political ambition come to that. But at least he did have a good sense of tactical ability. Much more so than many of those in charge of the Admiralty whose power relied more on political manoeuvring than any strategic ability. As for the Gungans, he was relatively confident that they would be dealt with. So he gave an order to his fleet to make the Gungans the priority.

He was then given a message. 'Sir, we have just received report. A fleet of Naboo refugees have just exited the Maw. We are engaging them as we can……..'

Matt was sitting in the cock-pit of Gram's ship making a desperate getaway from the surface of Naboo. Although Matt was young, even he could see the devastation which had been made of Naboo from the air. It seemed that the entire planet was covered in black, choking, ash. Naboo had been famed as one of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy. Not any more. He heard Neela say 'yes, yes, that will be fine,' looked around and saw that she was talking on a phone.

'Who are you talking to?' asked he.

Neela chuckled, 'oh, no-one, just making some plans for the future.'

'right, well, that's it, I've had a word and we will be heading for the Hutts who control the Planet Luton in the outer system, what's the matter Matt?'

Matt sighed. 'So, that's it then? We're just running away? What about our friends?'

'Matt, in case you hadn't noticed everyone running away.'

'Yes, but most people couldn't help. I can't help but think we could have done some more.'

'Matt, we would have ended up dead,'

'Yes, but it was so glorious, Gram. Did you see the last stand of some of the Naboo's that where cut off? Refusing to surrender despite been overwhelmingly outnumbered. Continuing to fight without any hope. Some of whom where non-Gungans and could have surrendered with their lives.'

'Well, so they did Matt. But then, you might also have noticed what happened to them. All killed. Me, I prefer to live. I might not like the empire either, but I do know when to oppose them and when not to. Like now. C15, we are now in orbit of Luton, correct?'

'Ah, correct, sir,' replied the navigating droid, C15.

There was a little cough from Neela. 'er, so Gram, with what did you bargain with the Hutt on Luton to gain our passage. You certainly don't have the money necessary for that type of trip at present.'

'Oh, well I think we might just do a few favours for them,' Gram looked very shifty. Neela snorted, 'would doing a few favours mean me? And I might suspect of a slightly erotic nature? I've seen the Hutt on Luton, Hurtha is his name and to say a great big mound of blubber would be doing him a favour. Why should I do erotic and cuddling, getting flirty and more besides, just to save your smelly neck?'

Gram smiled and put his arm around her. 'Now, Neela, Neela, yes, I don't deny you will have to do a small favour for us. But, you know, I wouldn't ask if we weren't desperate. You know our plight. We have to work together, we always do,' Neela snorted some more then stormed out of the cockpit. Gram said to Matt, 'Don't worry Kiddo, I'll sweet-talk her, I'm good at that as you know,' and followed her out.

'You'll have to have a wash first,' Matt muttered to himself as there was a certain…… aroma around Gram, particularly in times of stress.

Which was why a few hours later, Gram, Matt, Neela and the droids where standing in front of Hurtha in his home palace. It was a weird place. In a large cavern, with Hurtha himself sitting on a large pool of muddy liquid, surrounded by some of the strangest creatures as his lackeys. Gram was saying, 'er, yes, you see your greatness, we can trade you for our save packages with some certain……. Services,' he put his arm around Neela and looked at her, who smiled cutely at the Hutt.

The Hutt replied in a booming voice, 'ho, ho, yes, a worthwhile bargain, I accept,' in his own language.

Gram who understood, grinned at Neela, 'well, come on, love, time for you to do your stuff,'

Neela smiled cutely back again, 'actually, no. Time for you to do your stuff. I don't think you did your research properly with this particular Hutt. He is shall we say a bit of a man's Hutt.'

Matt replied slowly, 'erm, you mean he prefers men?'

'Well to be truthful, he isn't that bothered really. He'll lust after anything. But just at the moment he is going through a man phrase. Which means that in fact, it is you two he is after.' Neela laughed at their shocked faces. It was possibly a bit cruel of her, but all too often in the past, Gram had used her sexual charms as a means of escaping dangerous situations. Only fair that he found out what it was like. 'All I have to do is a little bit of cooking. With Hutts it's easy. C15 is going to help me.'

'Oh, really, I am a protocol droid, cooking is not really my primary function……'

'Never mind C15 your going to help. Your little friend is going to serves in the bar. But then he likes a drink.'

Matt and Gram looked at Hurtha. He was around 8ft when upright, slug like with a belly that was itself the size of a human, two little arms and a disgusting mouth and tongue. Neela looked at them, 'is he going to prefer rough and ready, Gram or pretty Matt?'

Gram and Matt both said in unison, 'Noooooooooooooo'

Mugwort was looking out as the small Naboo fleet began to get ripped apart by the Imperial forces. Once exiting the Maw, they had around half a minute to prepare for light-speed when they where attacked by Tie-fighters zipping around the fleet in multitude causing devastation. Again, he had noticed that it was the Gungans who where getting the worse of it. He had seen the main ship of Gungans destroyed in an early engagement now as he watched the ship containing the Gungan chief was hit and exploded in a ball of flame, Mugwort could hear on the com the screams of those dying inside and a cold silence as they ended.

In fact it seemed that most of the fleet was surrounded and been systematically destroyed. Mugwort himself was in a few ships that where actually a little ahead and cut of slightly from the main battle. Which was good for him, but bad for those in the main battle. Mugwort watched in despair, unable to help as his friends where virtually all destroyed. 3 Tie-fighters reached his ship and fired into it. Those 3 where at least repealed, but not before one had fired into the gunnery where Trex was sitting causing a localised explosion and some sharp machinery to stab into him.

Then Mandy cried, 'We are set for light-speed. We have a clear run. Looking at those ships after us we only have a few seconds too…..'

Mugwort didn't delay long. It was now or never. 'Go, ' commanded he, and the stars disappeared as the ship entered hyperspace and escaped the battle, accompanied by a very few others. But it was an unprogrammed hop. There just wasn't time to set a proper course. Which meant that the ship came out of hyperspace with precious little life-support and rolled around in a dangerous manner out of control for a while. When control was regained, Mandy said solemnly to Mugwort, 'I think you'd better see this,' and took him to Trex who was lying on the floor.

Whitesnake looked around at the site of the battle just taken and smiled rather grimly. He had successfully down his job. He had checked and was sure that no Gungans had survived. 'Cup of tea, sir,' said his assistant Baldrick. Well, that was no thanks to him. Whitesnake had, only a few minutes earlier stressed to all his subordinates the need to concentrate on the Gungans. But with Baldrick someone asked him when the battle started, 'any special instructions?' Baldrick had thought then said, 'no, none whatever. We should have enough forces to get these people whatever,' then Whitesnake had to clip him over the head and remind him. Memory wasn't Baldrick's strong suit. It was actually something of a mystery as to why someone as clearly incompetent as Baldrick was in a position of power in the Imperial navy. A mystery to Whitesnake as well.

Mugwort dashed up to Trex. Then he saw what Mandy was talking about. Trex was lying with a sharp bar from one of the ship's railings through his chest. His body was clouded in a little blood and awkwardly positioned. He looked in a bad way.

Trex coughed, 'My body is broken. This journey is at an end for me. I go to join the spirits…..'

Mugwort took Trex's hand. He wept. He was almost speechless with this turn of events. Mugwort replied, 'You will be avenged,' which he would admit was a little lame.

Trex continued slowly, but with wisdom. 'But how? Not only am I ended but my people are too. None of us have survived the Empire's wrath. How can any revenge or deed make up for such evil? But you are a good being,'

'Your race will never be forgotten for the good it has shown to the galaxy,'

Trex smiled, 'Farewell my friend,' he managed, then spoke no more.'

Mugwort wept some more. This was a great tragedy for the Galaxy. As far as he was aware, and he was right about this, not a single Gungan had survived. An entire intelligent species had been genocidied. Not to mention the rest of the destruction on Naboo itself. It's seas, continent, Mountains, rivers, forests, towns, all destroyed with just a small sample surviving. Mugwort didn't think that as a planet, Naboo could ever recover from this. He was correct about this. All right so a few of the humans on Gungans and himself had made it out. For what sort of life he wasn't sure. They would be haunted now by the Empire.

'Where do we go now?' asked Mandy.

'Ah, yes, I have a little idea.' answered Mugwort. He made a call with the galactic vid-screen and an elderly lady popped up on it.

'Mugwort! And what can I do for you? Have you had a hard time? Oh, yes, you've been on Naboo, silly question of mine!'

Mugwort confirmed her answer and asked for her help in finding sancanturay. To be honest, it wasn't as bad for him as it would be for many others. Mugwort, because of who he was, was aware of areas of the Galaxy, including civilizations and indeed whole planets, which where overlooked completely by the Empire. But he was, and he couldn't deny this, despite how much he would want to, running away. No other word. He wasn't the only one. Some of the non-Gungans had survived the destruction of Naboo. Some had just accepted reality reluctantly, been only made of flesh and blood, some had decided to join the winning team, but a very heroic few had chosen to make a stand against the Empire and to continue the fight in another time and place. Indeed, some of those where the foundations of what was to become the Rebellion in future decades.

But that was later. For now Mugwort was about to have a very bad time for a few years. It was bad for Gram and Matt as has been seen, but Mugwort was to have his own bad time for a while. But despite this he sped on.


	10. The death of Jarjar

So now this unhappy tale comes to its sad end. But there was one task left to do. One Gungan was indeed alive. For the moment. Jarjar Binks. His body was bruised, cut, bleeding and in pain. Plus there was the mental pain he was suffering. All of the events on Naboo where reported to him in considerable glee by his captors, always emphazing to Jarjar, the suffering of his people and the Senator's own role in causing the Genocide.

Jarjar was chained in the execution chamber, facing Whitesnake, Tarkin and the Emperor. 'So, this is he,' The Emperor gloated, 'the last member of the species we have destroyed.'

'Not for long,' confirmed Tarkin. 'We can execute him any time we like and have no reason to keep him.'

'How about now?' ordered the Emperor.

'As you wish my lord,' replied Tarkin. Tarkin took out his blaster and checked it carefully. Given the importance of this act, he wanted to carry it out himself.

Jarjar Binks looked on miserably. He knew he was facing death. Jarjar tried to look on the positive side and to keep some kind of hope in his heart, but it was difficult after all that had happened. Tarkin fired. Jarjar Binks twisted, his body flailed, for a minute he felt intense pain all around, and after that, the feeling left his soul, and he died.

'Very well done,' applauded the Emperor. He was impressed and happy with the turn of events. Whitesnake was happy. He knew that Tarkin had tried to test him with this operation, but as far as he was concerned he seemed to have passed and been trusted by Tarkin was a happy position to be in. Tarkin was happy. The Galaxy certainly had sat up and taken notice of the genocide that the Empire had committed. They would be taking them with a considerably more fear now.

But the Evil of the empire hadn't ended. In fact, it had barely just begun, and to start on the rest of the galaxy.

THE END.


End file.
